In a conventional office setting, an IT manager manages the use of printers located on a local area network in the offices of an enterprise by using a device management tool. For example, the IT manager will manage the quality of printing, the usage of the printers by different groups or departments, the use of color printers, etc. for all users and printers within the enterprise.
In some global companies, as many as one-third of the workers work from home. In a typical home-office computing environment, as shown in FIG. 1, each of a plurality of home-office workers has a PC and a printer at home. Each home-office worker can connect to the enterprise computer network using a VPN application to perform his/her work, but the home-office printer is not typically connected to the device management tool of the company. The home-office worker can locally print both work-related and non-work-related documents on the printer located at the worker's home. Typically, the home office worker will purchase his/her own printer supplies (ink, toner, paper, etc.) and will submit an expense report to the enterprise for reimbursement. However, in this system, the corporate IT manager can not determine how much of the printer-related supply cost is attributable to work-related printing and how much is attributable to private printing use. Thus, the enterprise is generally forced to pay for all of the printing supplies purchased by the home-office worker. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for monitoring and managing the use of home-office printers by employees of an enterprise.